BEFORE BEGINNING THE DISCUSSION:
We encourage you to practice a Land Acknowledgment before you begin the conversation. In this way, you will frame the conversation in respect and care for the Indigenous people and communities whose land you are occupying; and you will provide a model for your community. To learn more about Land Acknowledgment practices, to find language to use in your Land Acknowledgment, you can use thisresource.

PROMPT ONE: STARTING THE CONVERSATION

Immediately after the film, you may want to give people a few quiet moments to reflect on what they have seen. You could pose a general question (examples below) and give people some time to themselves to jot down or think about their answers before opening the discussion. Alternatively, you could ask participants to share their thoughts with a partner before starting a group discussion.

• If you were going to tell a friend about this film, what would you say?
• Describe a moment or scene from the film that you found particularly striking or moving. What was it about this scene that was especially compelling for you?
• If you could ask anyone in the film a single question, whom would you ask and what would you want to know more about?
• Did anything in the film surprise you?
• What aspects of the film felt relatable? What felt familiar? If nothing, then what felt new and unfamiliar?
• Can you think of a time in your life when you held an implicit or explicit racist belief? Upon reflection, where did those implicit ideas come from and/or how were you taught to think that way?
• What does learning about stories of Aboriginal children such as Dujuan make you wonder about the experiences of Native American children and youth in the United States?
• What was your experience learning about First Nations history or Native American history in schools in the United States? How have your thoughts changed after viewing In My Blood it Runs?

PROMPT TWO: Elder Knowledges and Language Reclamation

A central character to the film was Nana Carol, an Arrernte elder, who is Dujuan’s maternal grandmother. Throughout the film you see how she embraces Dujuan’s healing gifts and see’s Dujuan as an important part of Aboriginal futures. These futures include young ones knowing and honoring their language because it is interconnected with their Country (Land) relations. Therefore, she advocates for Arrernte led schools that include the elders and the community and teach the importance of revitalizing their language. Discuss the following questions on these connections between elder knowledges and language revitalization.

• After a bath with bush medicine, Nana Carol and Dujuan engage in a conversation. At one point Nana Carol tells him, “speak in Arrernte!” Why do you think Nana Carol’s intentions are? What does she want for Dujuan?
  • Do you have any elders in your life that have encouraged you to remain close to certain types of knowledge, lessons, or traditions?
• Nana Carol and Dujuan just arrived in their homeland. Dujuan says in Arrernte, “I’m coming to homeland” and Nana Carol says, “you mean coming back” and encourages him to say it again in Arrernte. Do you speak a language original to your homeland? Why is it important to think about language in relation to the territory or homeland?
• During a visit to their homeland, Nana Carol sits with Dujuan and other children around the fire. She teaches Dujuan and the children words in Arrernte to describe their surroundings, sing a song, and engage in storytelling. What can we learn about the role of elders, such as Nana Carol, in the social justice work of language revitalization?
  • In what ways do you understand the commitment to Arrernte language practices to be important in the lives of the children?
  • In what ways is Nana Carol a teacher? How is she different from the teachers in Dujuan’s schooling environment?
• Nana Carol says that the white people at school educate them (Dujuan and other Aboriginal children) the way they want to educate them, but she “needs them to speak their language, to carry on their language”. What role do schools play in language maintenance and revitalization?
  • Are schools always supportive of familial and cultural practices?
  • In what ways should schools be more attentive to cultural knowledge and why?

PROMPT THREE: Settler Colonialism and Schooling

Although not explicitly mentioned in the film, we see aspects of settler colonialism, which is the invasion of a territory that is already occupied and an act that uses violence, institutions, and force to justify that occupation. As Dujuan explicitly mentions, Australia is Aboriginal Country (Land) and therefore Aboriginal people are the rightful inhabitants of what is now known as Australia. Schooling, as an institution, is not benign and is in fact a culprit of settler colonialism as we see how schooling creates categories of who is a “bad student” that ultimately affect Aborignal youth. The removal of Aborignal youth from their families by foster care relies on school “performance” to finalize these removals; an act of settler colonialism and Aboriginal displacement. Discuss the following questions on these connections between settler colonialism and schooling:

• What were you taught about First Nations history at school? Should our education and history lessons include the Black Lives Matter movement and what it means for Black people, People of Color and First Nations people?
• Are there elements of your identity you feel mainstream society does not honor? How do you think your educational journey would have differed had you been forced to learn in a language other than your own? Are you confident you would have had the same experience in school and beyond?
• Dujuan talks about the memory and history that runs in his blood. Why is this history not legitimized in school? What is the purpose behind the erasure of his Aboriginal history?
• Why does Dujuan have to live far away from his ancestral homelands to get an opportunity to attend school?
• Nana Carol wants her children to be educated, “so that they know the system when they grow up.” What system is Nana Carol talking about? Why do you think this matters to her?
• During a lesson at an Australian school, a teacher tells Dujuan and his classmates that The Australia Book isn’t a story, but “it is information or non-fiction that is fact”. What do you think about this? What have you learned about stories vs. facts in school?
  • What are the potential impacts of teaching history from one perspective and presenting it as factual?
  • Why is it important to think critically about who is telling the story of the past?
• How does Dujuan describe the history he learns at school compared to the history he learns at home? How does the history learned in his Australian school strengthen the ongoing legacy and impacts of settler colonialism in schooling?
• What do you think Dujuan is feeling and thinking when the teacher is reading the book about the spirit and dreaming? What evidence from the film support your analysis?
  • Have you ever felt that curricula in schools didn’t quite fit your identity? Can you imagine a scenario in which that might be the case? Why or why not?
• Dujuan and his peers are told by the teacher that a standardized test is just like a coloring activity. What do you think about this? What are the implications of this definition about standardized testing?
• Why is it that for Abriginal families, maintaining their family together, and avoiding the foster care system, depends on school performance within a western education system?

PROMPT FOUR: Disciplining Policies & Incarceration

In the film you see multiple ways that Dujuan is being disciplined. For example, he is sent to the “time-out corner”, intimidated by the principal about the foster care system, and is expelled from multiple schools for his “behavior”. Additionally, we see how the education and foster care system work in conjunction to send young Aboriginal youth into the foster care system which leads into forms of incarceration. Discuss the following questions to engage in a dialogue about disciplining policies and incarceration practices.

• What is your memory of being 10 years old? Could you imagine being incarcerated at this age, or as an adult? How would this affect your life, family, work relationships?
• What do school officials and other officers say about Dujuan regarding his “behavior” in school? In what ways is their “official” descriptions of his behavior harmful or short-sighted?
• What disciplinary actions are taken to address Dujuan’s “behavior”? How are these disciplinary actions out of alignment with his home community’s response? What can you infer about the differences between the way westernized knowledge frames behavior and care and indigenous ways of knowing the same behaviors?
• In what ways can we see Dujuan’s identity as an Aboriginal healer come into tension with the schooling system? Why do you think these tensions exist? In what ways could the schooling system be more equitable and supportive of Dujuan as an Aboriginal youth?
• How are the police, jail and/or prisons, and school discipline related, especially when we think of their response to underrepresented students (Aboriginal, Indigenous, Black, poor, LGBTQ+)? What relationships can you draw between the practices of schools and criminal justice institutions?
• Think about these following words: misbehavior, trouble-maker, delinquent, bad student, at-risk. Where do you think these words come from? How do schools use these words to label students? In what ways are these labels connected to colonizer’s knowledge practices and power?
• To conclude the film, Dujuan’s family decide to send him back to his father’s ancestral homelands. In what ways is going back home to his Lands a form of education? What do you think he will learn being back home that he wouldn’t be able to just by going to school?

PROMPT FIVE: Indigenous Sovereignty and Country (Land) Relations

In the film you see and hear Dujuan and his family talk about going to the country. Dujuan explains that it is important to go to the Country and stay connected because of the medicine and teachings that are good for him and the Aboriginal people. The Country for First Nations peoples is more than just a place to visit. Rather, the Country is representative of Aboriginal people’s connection to their identity, spirituality, family, language, and culture regardless if they live in the Country or in an urban place. Due to the displacement, dispossession, and forced removal from ancestral Lands, Aboriginal people continue to assert their sovereignty through their connection to the Country. Discuss the following questions to engage in a dialogue about Indigenous sovereignty and Country (Land) relations.

• From the film, what did you learn about the Aboriginal People and Torres Strait Islanders from Australia, especially the Arrernte/Garrwa Aborigonal People?
  • Have you ever considered what traditional lands you are currently living on? Why or why not?
• Explain some of the ways that the Arrernte/Garrwa community in the film have a relationship with their ancestral homelands?
• Why is it important to know that Aboriginal People are the first peoples of Australia, their history and activism, and how they are still fighting for their rights today?
  • How can this knowledge also be applicable where you currently live? Why is it important to develop a relationship with the land that you are currently occupying and what can you do with that knowledge?
• How is language and culture related to identity, education, and learning? Think about what the elders say in the film and why Dujuan goes back to his ancestral homelands.
• Who are the original peoples from where you live, what are some of their stories, and where are they now? Why is it important, wherever you are, to acknowledge the original people of that territory/land/place?